With the exception of Bridge Of Spies, you know that you’re in for a wild and surreal ride when it come to a Coen Brothers film, and that’s as true for Hail, Caesar! as it was for their previous comedies, O Brother Where Art Thou, Raising Arizona and Burn After Reading. However, the defining adjective to describe the film is “interesting”, which sounds like a kind way of saying it’s “crap, but not without its intelligent merits”, but that’s not really the case with the 2016 throwback to 1950s Hollywood. Instead, it’s a funny, random and surreal showcase of the golden age of the film industry that emphasises how things have changed since then, which is delivers, coincidentally, with a good amount of intelligence and indeed merit.
The recent DVD release brings the film to home entertainment, where it works quite well as a deep thinking comedy. Admittedly, some of the overblown scene constructions would have looked more impressive on the big screen, but it really doesn’t lose all that much in the balance.
The story itself is about as unconventional as they come, focusing on a fictionalised day-in-the-life tale of real-life Hollywood fixer, Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) as he mulls over a job offer from aviation company, Lockheed, while also trying to deal with the farcical dramas that crash around him. These include the disappearance of the lead star of the big production of the story of Christ film within the film, Hail, Caesar!, the illegitimate child of another huge movie star working for the production company and the woeful acting skills of a western star making his first enforced forays into more serious thespian acting territory.
While it doesn’t really go anywhere specifically in the end, it does make a good vehicle for the thought process behind the film and the complex comedy that it has worked so hard to deliver. It’s a heavily layered plot that touches on everything from the communist witch hunts in Hollywood during the 1950s, the privacy of movie stars in the public attention and the wrangles of theology.
The cast is strong, led directly by Josh Brolin (Men In Black 3) as Eddie Mannix, cascading outwards with great characters, and equally enthralling delivery from George Clooney (Tomorrowland) as Baird Whitlock, the befuddled star who gets kidnapped by a band of communists; Alden Ehrenreich (Han Solo movie) as the singing cowboy Hobie Doyle, Scarlet Johannson (Captain America: Civil War) as DeeAnna Moran, the trash talking Hollywood sweetheart, and Ralph Fiennes (Spectre) as movie director lovie Laurence Laurentz. The Coen Brothers have really played around with the casting by juxtaposing stars in roles that contrast with their back catalogue with Jonah Hill (War Dogs) playing a very straight-laced go-to person working for the production company, Channing Tatum (The Hateful Eight) starring as a tap dancing and singing star of a sailor movie and incredibly John Bluthal of Vicar Of Dibley fame starring as the father of the new left, Herbert Marcuse.
While the Hail, Caesar! DVD is one we may be inclined to watch again, it’s not got that much re-watch potential, so we’d say it’s maybe more of a digital rental than a collection addition. However, it is a film with a lot of detail and nuances to take in, so if that’s your thing, or you’re a die-hard Coen Brothers fan, then it could be one for the shelf.
Hail, Caesar! DVD review: 3.7/5
